A Clinic Secure

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

"Louisiana is one of eight states that has more opioid prescriptions than
it has residents. The state has the sixth highest
prescription-per-capita rate at 1.03 pain-killer prescriptions written
per Louisiana resident in 2015.

But Holcombe argues more can be done, like making better use of the
Prescription Monitoring Program operated by the Louisiana Board of
Pharmacy.
The database includes anyone in Louisiana that has been
prescribed a controlled substance. The problem, Holcombe points out, is
that it is not mandatory for every prescriber to check first.
“It
has been hugely important, but curiously, it is required that
pharmacists check it before administering the prescription but not
physicians before prescribing,” he explained.
Changing that would
be “a very, very simple thing that could be done to squelch the
over-prescribing taking place,” Holcombe said."

On September 27, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that
requires all prescribers to check the state-run prescription database
(known as CURES 2.0) before prescribing opioid painkillers, sedatives or
any other schedule II, III or IV drugs.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

"“As alleged, rather than doing no harm as a physician, Shannon Ceasar
illegally dispensed Oxycodone into a community struggling with an
epidemic of opioid addiction,” stated U.S. Attorney Polite. “Then, when
the governing medical board and law enforcement dared to challenge his
criminality, Ceasar threatened to kill them. This level of disregard for
human life, particularly from a physician, is absolutely despicable.”"

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

An update from Shatterproof.org, on the recent passage of the CARA.Read the entire post here.

"This bill is an important first step, addressing the opioid epidemic in
several ways. It authorizes $181 million in spending for treatment,
prevention and recovery programs, and it allows nurse practitioners and
physician assistants to prescribe buprenorphine to help treat opioid
addiction. Most notably, it is clear recognition by both Congress and
the administration that addiction must be treated as a health issue, not
a crime."

"Over the past 2 decades, pain management in the United States has
increasingly come to rely on opioid analgesics as a primary treatment.
As a result, there has been a sharp increase in opioid prescribing, with
opioid analgesic prescriptions, by weight, quadrupling since 1999.
Concomitantly, there has been a dramatic in- crease in overdose deaths
involving prescription opioids, with those rates also nearly quadrupling
between 1999 and 2008. Although virtually nothing more is known about
the circumstances of these overdoses, numerous agencies led by the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called for states to
establish more stringent policies with respect to opioid prescribing.
The inherent message is: Decreased prescribing is a principal way to
achieve fewer overdose deaths."

See link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1932227516000112